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My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)
My Little Pony: The Movie is a 1986 American animated musical fantasy film based on the Hasbro toy line of the same name. It was directed by Michael Joens and written by George Arthur Bloom. The film was succeeded by the "My Little Pony" animated series which ran in late 1986; a 10-part episode from the series "The End of Flutter Valley" served as a sequel to the film. It was released on June 20, 1986 by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Plot At their home, Dream Castle, the ponies are running and playing through flowery meadows and grassy green fields with their animal friends. Elsewhere, Baby Lickety-Split is practicing a new dance step, as Spike, a baby dragon, accompanies her rehearsal on the piano. Meanwhile, at the Volcano of Gloom, a wicked witch named Hydia is planning to ruin the ponies' festival, but her two incompetent daughters, Reeka & Draggle are not up to her family's standards of wickedness and she laments about it, before sending them off to ruin the festival. During the baby ponies' dance performance, Baby Lickety-Split tries to add her own dance and ruins the whole performance. She is told off by everyone and she runs away, followed by Spike, only to end up falling down a waterfall and trapped in a valley. Reeka and Draggle try to ruin the ponies' festival by flooding the area, but thanks to the Sea Ponies, they end up getting washed away in an overflowing waterfall. The ponies send out a search party to find Baby Lickety-Split and Spike. Meanwhile, Hydia decides to concoct the Smooze, an unstoppable purple ooze that will bury and destroy everything in its path; it will also make anyone who is splashed by it grumpy and woeful. Reeka & Draggle go and collect the ingredients for the Smooze, leaving out the flume, an ingredient that they are afraid of retrieving. Hydia releases the Smooze which rages towards the Dream Castle, trapping Spike and Baby Lickety-Split inside a mountain. The ponies are forced to evacuate as the castle and the surrounding land is submerged by Smooze. The search party continues its attempt to locate Lickety-Split before the Smooze engulfs them. Later, two Pegasus ponies, Wind Whistler and North Star, travel to the human world to fetch Megan, the keeper of the Rainbow locket, bringing Megan's younger siblings, Danny and Molly, along as well. Megan releases the Rainbow into the Smooze, but it is swallowed up and lost but this does halt the Smooze. The ponies are discouraged by this, but Megan offers the encouragement that another rainbow lies out there. Enraged, Hydia discovers the Smooze was lacking flume and sends her daughters to get the missing ingredient from an octopus-like plant monster that lives on a rocky outcrop near the volcano. The monster punishes the sisters, until Reeka bites a tentacle, thereby injuring the plant, and they escape with some flume. Hydia adds it to the Smooze, which is reactivated. Megan accompanies two ponies on a visit to the Moochick, who gives the trio a new home (in Paradise Estate) and a map to find the Flutter Ponies who might stop the Smooze. A group led by Megan sets out to find Flutter Valley while Spike and Baby Lickety-Split run into five ugly but well-meaning creatures called Grundles, whose home, Grundleland, was covered by the Smooze in the past. While trying to find the Flutter Ponies, Megan gets lost in a field of giant sunflowers & almost becoming a victim of the Smooze. Hydia sees the Smooze has failed to kill the ponies and sends her pet, Ahgg to go after them. Meanwhile, Spike, Baby Lickety-Split, and the Grundles almost fall victim to the Smooze, with Spike's tail being smoozed, but they escape by floating down the river on a log, and end up in a clearing by a well, where Baby Lickety-Split, feeling down about the situation she is in, hears echoes in the well and rescues Morning Glory, a Flutter Pony who fell in earlier. She is informed of the Smooze and so promises to lead them to Flutter Valley. Meanwhile, the team on the quest to find the Flutter Ponies press on through Shadow Forest, where they are attacked by sentient trees which fire sharp branches at them. After escaping the forest, they find that the high narrow final pass into Flutter Valley is blocked by Ahgg, a giant spider, and its web, and Megan is once more in danger, but is saved by Wind Whistler. When they get out of the canyon, the group finds Flutter Valley and they meet with the queen Rosedust, who refuses to get involved at first until Baby Lickety-Split arrives, safe and sound (along with Spike, the Grundles and Morning Glory). There is much argument about non-involvement in other ponies' problems from the flutter ponies. Even though Morning Glory pleads with the queen to help out their "cousins", Rosedust still hesitates until after Baby Lickety-Split appears to sway her enough to aid in the defeat of the Smooze. The other ponies and forest animals are about to be covered by the Smooze as the witches watch from their ship. The Flutter Ponies come to the rescue and destroy the Smooze with their magical wind, Utter Flutter. They uncover the rainbow and drop the witches back into the volcano with the sticky goo. The Grundles are given the ruins of Dream Castle, all the ponies and Spike who were covered in Smooze are cleaned by the Flutter Ponies' Utter Flutter and the Rainbow of Light is returned to the ponies. With everything okay, the ponies take Megan and her siblings back home. Voice Cast *Danny DeVito as Grundle King *Rhea Perlman as Reeka *Madeline Kahn as Draggle *Cloris Leachman as Hydia *Tony Randall as Moochick *Charlie Adler as Spike and Woodland Creature *Russi Taylor as Morning Glory, Rosedust, Skunk and Bushwoolie *Tammy Amerson as Megan *Keri Houlihan as Molly *Scott Menville as Danny *Jon Bauman as The Smooze *Michael Bell as Grundle *Sheryl Bernstein as Buttons, Woodland Creature and Bushwoolie *Susan Blu as Lofty, Grundle and Bushwoolie *Nancy Cartwright as Gusty and Bushwoolie #4 *Cathy Cavadini as North Star *Peter Cullen as Grundle and Ahgg *Laura Dean as Sundance and Bushwoolie #2 *Ellen Gerstell as Magic Star *Katie Leigh as Fizzy and Baby Sundance *Laurel Page as Sweet Stuff *Sarah Partridge as Wind Whistler *Alice Playten as Baby Lickety Split and Bushwoolie #1 *Jill Wayne as Shady and Baby Lofty *Frank Welker as Bushwoolie #3 and Grundle Production "My Little Pony: The Movie" was one of the first projects for Nelson Shin's AKOM studio. Amid an emergency rush, Shin and his crew spent 10 weeks on the film's 300,000 cels. Japan's Toei Animation also worked on the production. Musical Numbers #"My Little Pony Opening Chorus" #"Evil Witch Like Me" - Hydia #"I'll Go It Alone" - Baby Lickety-Split & Spike #"I'll Do the Dirty Work" - Draggle & Reeka #"Nothing Can Stop The Smooze" - Witches & Smooze #"There's Always Another Rainbow" - Megan #"Home" - The Moochick #"Grundles Good" - The Grundles #"What Good Could Wishing Do?" - Baby Lickety-Split & Morning Glory #"My Little Pony Ending Chorus" Box Office "My Little Pony: The Movie" first had a limited release on June 6, 1986 where it opened at #10 at the box office, grossing $416,108 during its opening weekend. During its wide theatrical release on June 13, 1986, it opened at #12 at the box office, grossing $674,724 during its opening weekend, making it one of the weakest debuts among major feature films. Domestically, it grossed $5,958,456. Due to the poor performance of "My Little Pony: The Movie" and "The Transformers: The Movie", Hasbro lost $10 million and the producers were forced to make "G.I. Joe: The Movie" a made-to-video release and cancelled a "Jem" movie that was in development at the time. Reception "My Little Pony: The Movie" received poor reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an audience score of 75% with an average rating of 3.5/5. Nina Darnton of the New York Times wrote in her review of the film: "Unlike the great Disney classics, there is nothing in this film that will move young audiences, and there are very few bones of wit thrown to the poor parents who will have to sit through the film with children of this age group." The staff of Halliwell's Film Guide said that the film came off as an "immensely distended cartoon meant to plug a fashionable line of children's dolls." Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times said in his review that watching the film "is like being immersed in cotton candy for an hour and a half: The sticky-sweet cuteness is piled on so thickly that adults leave the theater checking their teeth for new cavities." Category:Films Category:American films Category:1980s films Category:De Laurentiis Entertainment Group films Category:Films Based on Toys Category:Fantasy films Category:Musical films Category:Children and family films Category:Traditional animated films